Brewing 5 Gallon Batches in 45 Gallon Equipment

[IronArtisanBrewing]

I am about to purchase some stout tanks, 45 Gallon everything.

My question is, can you brew smaller batches in a larger setup. Similar questions have been asked but pertaining to doing 5G batches in a 15G kettle, which is my current configuration.

Would you advise only brewing smaller batches with the current 15G kettle and 10G cooler mashtun, or give brewing smaller batches in the new equipment a shot?

Should I only get a 30G kettle instead? THe extra $$$ to go from 30G to 45G is only 15% more, with 33% more volume potential, so I want to go bigger just from a economic perspective.

Cheers,
IronArtisanBrewing

 

[jbaysurfer]

The boil off rate for such a tiny batch in such a large kettle is going to be really really difficult to account for. You'll have to start with such a large volume that you could run into problems with mash PH when sparging (over sparging, extracting tannins).

I'm not saying it can't be done, but I don't think it's ideal at all. I'd get the kettle for the batch size you'll be doing the most of and not worry about "economics".

THe extra $$$ to go from 30G to 45G is only 15% more, with 33% more volume potential, so I want to go bigger just from a economic perspective.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

Nope. You won't be able to reasonably do a batch that small. I have 30-gallon stout kettles. I can't do 5-gallon batches. Just not feasible. I can go down to about 8-gallons, but that is a ridiculous number. You could probably do 10-gallons in the 45-gallon kettles but that would be on the low end.

How are you heating these? Direct? Electric? Also, I thought stout had 40-gallon and not 45?